London's Callin

 Alright! So I have been meaning to do a post with photos from our London trip but it kept getting pushed back so here you go!
So a summary of what led up to us going to London.
1. Warren joined a CFA(certified Financial Accountant) team with 3 other guys from UNLV to compete in an annual global competition where each team is assigned a business and then they have to analyze everything about that business and give a presentation as if to a potential buyer on whether they should buy, sell, or hold the stock in that company.
2. They competed in a regional event against other western states in AZ and won by .8 points. :)
3. They went to Ontario Canada 3 weeks later to compete against all of North and South America. They beat out a ton of other schools including some of those high end Ivy league schools and won all of the competition. (crazy right? When he called me I didn't believe him)
4. They then went to London to compete with international teams which included, India, Poland, and New York ( they get to go because New York has so much financial clout).
5. They got 2nd place. Poland won, but everyone thought we won until they made the announcement it was that close.

So I got to go with Warren and putz around in LONDON!! for 4 days. It was wicked awesome. So here are some highlights.

Buckingham Palace Gates. So Fancy!!

Changing of the guard. It was spring break for most of Europe which we didn't know, so there are like 2,000 people here on a weekday.

Who knew that the changing of the guard included a full band playing awesome hits from Abba?

These guards looked like little kids, I really wanted to touch their hats. They looked SO FUZZY!

English version of trash. :)

Old doorway that is part of the Abbey.

Having a nice time and taking photos in front of the parliament building. Wicked old building.

Side view of Westminister Abbey. Awesome gothic architecture.

BIG BEN!

Front view of Westminister abbey. They wanted 25lbs to tour inside which is like 35$ for us so we just took a picture out front.

Amazing sandwich shops! They had all these varieties just made up and they would wrap it up for you. We had a hummus with roasted vegetables. So yummy....

Buckingham palace is at the very end of this picture. This is The Mall. It is a walking path that goes along St. James park. I walked around on my own for an afternoon. I think I probably did 10 miles, my feet hurt so much at the end.

This was the other end of the mall, it is called Admiralty Arch. So dang Fancy!! It just awed me at how old all their buildings are, I've never seen stuff so well made that it just lasts for centuries.

Trifalgar square and the National art Gallery. As an art teacher this gallery was the most amazing place I have ever been. You know when you see artwork in books. They had all of that artwork here. I saw Monet, Gaughin, Rembrandt, and thousands of others. Paint strokes so amazing that the flowers looked transparent. I wanted to stay there forever.

Yeah! The sun came out and we had lunch at this pub. It was meat and potatoes, but their dessert! Those English make amazing desserts.

Upward view of our hotel, the Crowne plaza St. James. Look at that Moulding!!!!  

Hey all you silly tourists!

I always like to take pictures of the walk signs, every country has a different attitude. It is fun to see the difference in symbols.

Covent Garden Market. We did some fun shopping at the locally run booths. It was super cool with an upstairs and donwnstairs. There was a group of students playing stringed instruments, it echoed through the whole place. Beautiful..

Really old archway I think it said it was built in like 1652. I mean really? an archway that is over 300 years old.

The changing of the police guards. We were walking back to our hotel and probably 150 guys walked out of that red building, it was like a magic trick I didn't know where they all fit. Oh and English cops don't carry guns, and they walk everywhere. Pretty cool and it was only 3 buildings down from our hotel which made us feel even better,

St. Paul's Cathedral. Just a gorgeous gorgeous building.

The water fountain for St. Paul's Cathedral. :) Have to have a fancy water fountain for a fancy building.

The Thames river, the setting for many classic books and some of the London skyline.

Hey thats our reflection in a big ball!

So our trip was pretty awesome. It would have been even better if we could have stayed longer but other than that no complaints.  On our last day we also visited the Tate Modern art gallery. Again I was in pure paradise. I showed Warren some of my favorite artists.This one below is a sculpture by Alexander Calder (rates up there in my top 3 artists)  he was the first to make mobiles. It was sitting perfectly still on a pedastal with no movement and I was aghast at Hello!! this is a mobile, it is supposed to move!! So I bent over the red rope and blew as hard as I could and it rotated! Made me so happy. Some guy recorded me, so maybe sometime I will find that recording online. I'd really like too because it was definitely an awesome moment.
Moral of the story, get out and explore the world...it's good for you.  

Summer is approaching

So much fun that summer is coming up again. Warren  and I celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary this week .Crazy that it has been 8 years. We took Eleanor and went to steak n shake..mmmmm

There is a new teacher at my school who is young, brown haired, and short. Her kids keep calling me by her name....yeah not cool with that. So a change in hair color was in order. First time being blonde since I was a natural at like 4 years old. Not too shabby. :)

Scared me though. I thought my hair was going to fall out or come out orange. This picture makes it look kind of orange but it is like gold with an antique gold at the ends.

In April, my sister and I had a booth at the UNLV festival of communities. These are the best photos I did. They had a photo competition but because I am not a student, I couldn't win. Soooooo not fair.